When I asked him about the joke during a press luncheon today at Cannes’ Nikki Beach, Allen said that he is a comic, and that he would never tell another comic what he or she can or can’t say. He also said he
wasn’t offended at all by that or any of the other negative press that has been floating around this week, offering that “everything possible has been written about me at this point in my life.”

During the pre-show introducing Allen’s opening-night film Cafe Society on Thursday, Lafitte during his remarks said of the writer-director, “You’ve shot so many of your films here in Europe and yet in the U.S. you haven’t even been convicted of rape.” The remark drew gasps from the crowd.

The opening ceremony itself seemed to bug Allen more than anything, noting that it delayed the start of the movie (it did, by about 40 minutes, including a 15-minute break after the ceremony). Allen said when people come to a film they like to see the movie right away.

I told him that is the drawback of being the opening-night movie at Cannes, and he quickly agreed with that.